This invention relates to front pillar arrangements for motor vehicle body frames having a door hinge attached to an outer part of the pillar.
German Offenlegungsschrift No. 32 22 807 describes the attachment of a component, such as a door hinge, to the door pillar of a motor vehicle in which a metal reinforcing sheet for mounting the hinge is provided between the hinge mount and the outer section of the door pillar and is welded to the outer section of the door pillar.
German Offenlegungsschrift No. 36 22 188 discloses an arrangement for connecting a front pillar and a cowl in a motor vehicle. In this arrangement, a reinforcing element provided inside the front pillar extends laterally through the hollow space formed by the front pillar and is welded by flanges between the outer part and the inner part of the front pillar. The overall construction of this arrangement is very costly, however.
The reinforcing element merely provides a certain torsional stiffness which hinders cross-sectional deformation of the front pillar which, in turn, helps to keep the door from moving downwardly.
German Patent No. 40 16 730 describes a support pillar for a motor vehicle body frame which has a pillar-like hollow body consisting of at least two profile shells and a tube that extends in the lengthwise direction of the hollow body and is fixed in a defined location. The effect of this is that, when roll-over loads about an axis or frontal impact loads occur, all of the deformation energy is absorbed by the front body pillar without appreciable deformation of the pillar. This design is also especially costly, particularly with respect to the incorporation of the tube. A similar construction is described in Japanese Published Application No. 8276864.
Moreover, Japanese Published Application No. 09-226622 describes a support with an essentially triangular reinforcing element. This support is intended to absorb the forces applied when a load is placed on the support pillar so that the support pillar does not bend toward the passenger compartment.
All of these prior art designs are comparatively costly. Furthermore, while they do absorb forces acting on a motor vehicle in a frontal or lateral collision, a frontal collision causes a horizontal offset between the vehicle door and the upper end of the side rail. This offset can be attributed to the fact that the front pillar folds more easily at its bottom end than at its top end. This horizontal offset causes a torque which stresses the door weatherstrip flange, resulting in a bending stress on the adjacent motor vehicle door.